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One of the great things I love about going to Comic Con International in San Diego is taking a stroll through the small press section, Artist’s Alley and the Image set-up. I never know what I’ll find, but I always find something interesting that nearly makes the whole convention worthwhile.

I’ve forgotten which one of the creators I met at the Image Comics booth (got to start writing these things down), but he hand-sold me a copy of Reed Gunther #2, one of the older issues.

This is a terrific comic book. The story is touted for all ages, and it truly is. I can easily see this being enjoyed by a 9-year-old and a 39-year-old - it’s just great fun with terrific storytelling chops on display by both writer and artist.

It’s hard to believe that Joe Kubert passed away. His work was such a large part of my comic book experience and his war comics are so ingrained on my psyche that it feels like the passing of a great man of literature.

From Sgt. Rock, to Enemy Ace, to Tarzan and dozens more, his work never disappointed. His covers were dynamic, fluid, and never looked like anyone else’s. I could spot Kubert art a mile away. I loved his covers on Son Of Tomahawk, and I really liked a tryout series of his called Firehair, about a red-headed boy raised by native Americans.

And as much as I loved his war comics, it was his Tarzan that was a revelation to me. I’d read the Gold Key stuff which I found stiff and unexciting, but when I picked up the first issue Kubert did for DC, I was amazed at how he got me to like a character I was never really interested in.

Years later, I was fortunate enough to be involved in the publication of one of Joe’s graphic albums, Abraham Stone, at Malibu Comics. Here’s how that came about.

So... my local comic book store closed down after 25 years in business. It’s the same old story - they can’t make a go of it any more following a boom period in the 1990s.

I found out about it, oddly enough, on Free Comic Book Day this year, and was part of a conversation where the owner was discussing the reasons why his store was closing. One of his comments was that he had seen a decrease in comic book-related traffic in his shop over the years and that he had not seen new, younger readers coming in for comics.

The store had between 50 and 70 regular subscribers in a community comprised of three towns, totalling around 50,000 people. It’s a mostly rural area that’s been hit hard economically over the years - there are almost no aspirational jobs for anyone in their 20s, and the population demos have less than 6% of the population between the ages of 20-25.

Comic Con International has come and gone already. Naturally, my Comic Con experience is quite a bit different from most people. I’ve been going for quite a while, have a lot of friends and acquaintances that I see there, and have an established routine of places to be at certain times.

I got there too late on Wednesday for what some reported was a raucous Preview Night, so my convention didn’t start until Thursday morning.

Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter has a rundown of convention memories from around the internet. (And congratulations to Tom for his Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Journalism. It’s well-deserved.

This is the week where the comics industry slows down for a couple of days as everyone saves their big news for Comic Con International in San Diego. That gets going on Wednesday evening - Preview Night - and you can expect the announcements to start flying faster than anyone can cut and paste a press release, and everyone's abuzz with their favorite version of the four Spider-Man movies.

My good friend Paul O’Connor who used to write for Malibu Comics back in the day and is now one of the founder partners of the app company Appy Entertainment (and creator of the Longbox Graveyard blog), dropped me an email a couple of months ago. He wanted to host a Malibu Comics panel at this year’s Comic Con in San Diego.

2012, it turns out, marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of Malibu Comics; the company opened its doors in January 1987 and released its first three books in July of that year: Libby Ellis #1, Stealth Force #1 and Dark Wolf #1.

2012 also marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Ultraverse, Editor-In-Chief Chris Ulm's big idea to launch a writer-based super-hero universe. He started to implement his UV vision in the summer of 1992. The convention season that year was spent rounding up the seven creators who would become the Ultraverse Founders - Len Strazewski, James Hudnall, Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, Mike Barr, Gerard Jones and James Robinson - which culminated in the first Ultraverse Founders Conference in Scottsdale, AZ.

In the world of comic books, there are writers, artists, colorists, letterers and editors. But don’t be discouraged if you lack those skills - there’s always work for anyone with a good personality and a hard body hard enough to fit into a tight-fitting costume, especially during convention season.

Comic Con International in San Diego is the biggest U.S. convention and this year it’s being held from July 11-15th. Already the ads are popping up on Craigslist for models, cosplayers, costume performers, booth babes and my favorite: “Brand Ambassador.”

Let’s check out some of them:

Reality star and KISS frontman Gene Simmons wants male and female cosplayers for the con to appear as Dominatrix and Zipper.

GMR Marketing is having a gaming promotion at the con and they need 2 brand ambassadors with gaming experience.